Notes From Strategic Conversation #2

11/18, Barrett Ballroom, 1:30-3:00 PM

The Accreditation Steering Committee and Campus Forum Committee appreciate the time each faculty member, staff member, student, and administrator gave to take part in this second, in a series of 4 (this AY), conversations. These conversations not only facilitate our ability to convey to WASC a collective view of SJSU at this point in time, but also engages folks campus-wide in a process designed to help us collectively shape our future. Thanks so much to those who participated, we encourage you to remain engaged throughout! Bring along a colleague and/or student to the next conversation (Wednesday, 2/25, noon - 1:30pm in Student Union).

The task for this conversation was to engage in a discussion of the most critical strategic issues (a narrowing down from 1st strategic conversation) facing this campus over the next five years.

Facilitators were asked to guide the discussion in a way that would

a) yield five to eight critical strategic issues by the end of the discussion period.
b) define each issue.
c) explain why each issue is "vital."

Summary of Group Discussions & Complete Set of Notes from Small Groups

Summary of Survey Invormation & Responses to Open Ended Items from Participants

Summary of Group Discussions - Primary Strategic Issues

Need for Institutional Planning & Priorities

• We currently lack clear direction
• It's about aligning resources -- priorities -- vision
• Particularly when funding constrained we need to direct what resources we do have to agreed upon priorities
• Without an Institutional Plan and priorities efforts are fragmented and funding dispersed rather than targeted

Communication

• Communication presently too ineffective - left hand often unaware of what the right hand is doing and why
• Need to increase collaboration which takes good communication
• The flow of accurate and reliable information is critical to all internal and external constituents
• Lack of good communication affects efficiency and squanders time and money

PR/Marketing

• Need clear identity
• Need to commuicate what having a degree from SJSU means
• Need to celebrate and project pride in where/what we are - large, metropolitan, commuter school
• Need to embrace and communicate our strengths better and more frequently
• Good PR/Marketing will help
  • our grads,
  • with recruitment of faculty, staff, & students,
  • in lobbying efforts,
  • with fundraising

Advancement, Fundraising, Alumni Outreach

• Just too few resources available from students and the state - affects faculty/staff workload, student support, and our overall capacity to achieve our potential
• Must have external resources to offset budget cuts. Without, we will continue to be constrained by inadequate state support
• Effective outreach positively enhances our image which affects everything we do
• Many untapped resources out there

Diversity/Campus Climate

• Faculty ethnicity vs. student ethnicity
• Most ambiguous of all issues reported, needs clarification/exploration
• Frequently mentioned, but without detail/explanation

Enrollment Management

• Encompasses both recruitment and retention
• An enrollment management plan needed
• Relates to/affects
  • budget (FTES driven)
  • workload
  • educational quality
  • access
• Good enrollment management can help address concern around student preparation for college
• Communication regarding process, goals and targets needs to be improved

Technology

• Faculty/staff training needed (including peoplesoft)
• Need more IT support
• Too few computer resources
• Need greater computer lab access
• Need more efficient, centralized network
• Need more technology in classrooms
• Need email for students

Faculty/staff Workload

• Staff perceived as having lower morale than faculty
• We're trying to do too much with too little
• Lots of overtime needed from staff
• Peoplesoft presently overloading staff - negatively affects morale
• Overload can lead to burnout
• Overload negatively affects quality of education. Decrease in budget -- larger class sizes -- increased workload
• Resources/support has declined too much in recent years
• Time to degree is negatively affected
• Student needs are greater and more complex = increased workload
• If temp faculty continue to increase in number, workload for permanent faculty increases

Notes from Table Recorders

Table 1 & 9 (merged)

COMMUNICATION:

Enrollment: There is a need to better to communicate with potential and returning students during the admissions and registration period including: a tracking process so that the student knows the status of their application/registration, readily available advisors to help new students through the process of registration, an easier to follow processes.

Student Life/Orientation: More personalized and engaging communication with new students to encourage them to participate in campus activities even if they are commuters. More involvement of alumni with current students in campus activities. Students wanted to be able to connect with an academic advisor sooner and more meaningfully.

Inter-department: There is a need to set up lines of communication between Departments including students, faculty and staff.

Community Outreach: This is an important aspect of communication that needs to be developed. The concept is that the development of these contacts be multi-faceted: Outreach with High Schools to improve the preparation for students, Outreach with Business Community for an on-going assessment of classes offered making the curriculum reflective of the employer’s need once the student has graduated. Deleting unnecessary classes/majors. Partnering with the business community in training and educating would strengthen ties of understanding and perhaps in the long term a new revenue
source.

TECHNOLOGY:

UPGRADE existing technological equipment on campus working toward compatibility of servers and computers working to the 2005 goal that has been set for a “paperless” business process. Set in place a replacement policy for keeping equipment up-to-date.

Include Technology Training as a segment of Orientation including how to set up your home/laptop computer to communicate with the university for registration, adding/dropping classes, status of education (for graduation) and instruction on how to use PeopleSoft.

Establish a 24/7 Help Desk with technicians trained to work with PeopleSoft issues, software and able to troubleshoot. Include enough technicians so that a student, faculty or staff member does not have to wait up to 24 hours for a response.

Security issues were discussed. These need to be addressed campus-wide.

Student Lap-Tops: A consistent policy should be established campus-wide for students with laptops. If they are required, then a financial assistance program, lease program or something needs to be set up for those students who cannot afford a lap top.

CUSTOMER RELATIONS:

It was generally agreed that this is one of the most important areas of strategic plan that can be upgraded. Students’ education is the reason for the University and their issues need more attention.

Parking: There was concern expressed that there was not enough parking and the security of the garages needed some attention.

Table 2

1. Lack of vision & mission as a whole

• VPs & deans are working towards same vision & priorities
• clearly define priorities i.e. academic affairs, administrative processes
• cross-functional communication severely lacking
• priorities i.e. payroll versus hiring a faculty different colleges competing for same funding sources
• cooperate to utilize expertise across departments
• sharing of knowledge across departments
• efficient use of resources could increase with this cooperation

2. Priorities

• How can we ask for more resources/focus on issues when we’re in the middle of cut backs & are losing the little resources we have redistribute
• Need more efficient use of those resources i.e. human, monetary re-evaluate
• How our limited resources are being used now
• Lack of academic resources for students
• Lack of funding i.e. mosaic center
• Time it takes to get a degree - class sections being cut.
  

3. Admission & registration

• holds
• advisors
• confusion within departments organizations & structure of offices
• gap between faculty & students in re: to advising
• communication to students to let them know how to do WST
• structure of WST test may be hinder those with ESL students, students not passing test but doing ok in classes, makes students take longer to graduate
• Student Workload, especially those with jobs

4. Cultural diversification of faculty

• represent student diversity
• need for more mentors

5. Faculty/Staff Workload

• more projects for existing human resource
• more request for input in committees
• work/life balance
  

Table 3

Issue 1. We need to align resources to meet and support our priorities.

Definition: First we need to establish just what our shared priorities are. These conversations are part of a process to begin to do that. As we work out just what those priorities are, we need to make sure they are directly responding to the SJSU mission statement (either current or revised)

Why this is vital: clearly, resources are scarce, and we generally agree that we have been trying to do too much with too little.

Issue 2. We need improvement in information technology (IT).

Definition: suitable information technology is missing and needed throughout the entire campus community. This is especially ironic as we are the metropolitan university of Silicon Valley.

Why this is vital: we don’t have enough IT support, and what we have is often old and it is inadequately integrated. All encounter problems scheduling access to what we have. Adequate IT support is not presented to new students, staff, and faculty. Student computer labs aren’t accessible/open enough, and programs distributed to students are often already outdated. We have too few computer resources, and wonder why we can’t have a 24/7 computer lab at the library as they do at San Francisco State.

Issue 3. We need a coordinated, integrated transition plan for new students.

Definition: too many students arrive at SJSU unprepared (both as freshmen or as post-community college transfers) for university life, and this clearly impacts subsequent retention and acquisition of lifelong learning skills.

Why this is vital: Too many parts of our system are working for improvement here without awareness or knowledge of what is being done in other parts of the university. Originally the planned Student Academic Success Center was to help address this need, for example not all of Academic Services will be moving to the Student Academic Success Center. Most of Academic Services will continue to be located at the 10th Street garage, thus accessibility and location will continue to work against them. We need to pull together our strengths in MUSE, Upward Bound/College Readiness, Academic Services, Orientation, and other such programs reaching out to students new on campus.

Issue 4. Communication across all lines of the campus.

Definition: This one is simple and direct: we are not communicating with each other effectively enough. Lack of knowledge of each other, of each other’s programs, strengths, concerns, and activities, impedes our effectiveness and squanders time and money.

Why this is vital: we have too little money and too little time already! Note how often the need for “coordination” or “integration” turns up in all the other issues.

Issue 5. We are a metropolitan commuter school.

Definition: We need to recognize what we are and what we are not. We need to accept that we are a large commuter school, which inevitably means a different campus culture than one would find at a largely residential campus.

Why this is vital: We need to embrace our strengths (such as our multicultural diversity or the town/gown relationship potential of our new library) and work to make the best of some of problems inherent in our commuter culture (such as the omnipresent issues with parking, low amount of time students spend on campus when not in class).

Table 4

Most Critical Issues:

• Quality of Education
• Workload for faculty/staff
• Student preparedness, (lack of preparedness before students get here, not being prepared before they get here)
• Escalating Tuition (advertise what is available, what exists as aid to help students)
  

QUALITY OF EDUCATION

• concern here is that graduates are having difficulty finding jobs after they graduate if they don’t have a 3.0 GPA or higher
• raduates are expected to have higher GPA’s in order to be considered for employment
• our students need jobs when they graduate, we need quality education that prepares our students for life after graduating
• students that pass the remedial English course do not pass WST
• should GPA be the only standard that employers have for hiring our graduating students

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• the evidence for it in this case is that students with less than a 3.0 GPA are having trouble finding jobs when they graduate
• quality of education that prepares, our students, for careers/jobs
• perhaps we are setting our standards too low
• remedial classes a serious issue, students pass remedial test but do not pass the WST
• if employers are not even looking at students below a 3.0, then the desired outcome is to convince them that are students with a C average are still good students, but we wouldn’t want to do anything for everybody to be a 3.0
• we should be oriented towards helping our students so that when they get out they are able to find a job
• quality of education that prepares our students for careers/jobs
• our freshman are coming in and having to take remedial classes because they are not fully prepared
• serious problems with this issue and we have to get more involved with K-12 and the community colleges to work more together in order to fix the problem. We have a choice to either have students better prepared to come in or kick them out for not being prepared

Why issue is vital:

• students are not getting jobs after they graduate.
• employers are only looking at 3.0 GPA and higher
• better prepare them to graduate our students and have them move on to their next level

   

ESCALATING TUITION AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

• tuition continues to rise and for some students there is no financial aid available to them
• tuition has gone up 30% this year and it’s difficult for some students to pay
• the standards used to determine financial aid are not reasonable for the area we live in
• because tuition has gone up so much, students are not able to purchase textbooks, or delay purchasing them
• tuition should be affordable
• financial assistance with buying textbooks because our textbooks are overpriced

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• it’s obvious that our tuition has increased quite a bit
• major change for students that have just had their financial aid expired, like Cal Grants, and students who are not eligible but who are not really well off to be paying that kind of money out of their own pockets (but I know we have probably a lot of those students)

Why issue is vital:

• vital issue because students are not able to afford tuition
• after paying tuition there is no money to purchase textbooks
• textbooks are extremely overpriced –standards should be different because of the area we live in
• standards for determining assistance should be different because of the area we live in – it’s much more expensive to live here, pay tuition, textbooks, etc.(cost of living)
• some of the qualifications for the scholarship programs and the grants in the financial aid office is so narrow and tight that student’s just can’t meet them.

WORKLOAD FOR FACULTY AND STAFF

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• staff working a lot of overtime in the last couple of years having to do with the Peoplesoft implementation, so the hope for the ultimate solution to increase technology but burnout is potential there
• on faculty side, number of students per class have increased or are expected to 30-45 students per class
• faculty having to serve on more university committees

Why issue is vital:

• we don’t have the same level of resources
• quality issues and workload issues
• having to do more with the same level of resources, or with less resources, one or the other, or both

STUDENT PREPAREDNESS

• preparing students coming in from high school to college
• preparing students coming in from community colleges, incoming frosh and transfers

DISTANCE LEARNING

• how we are going to integrate that with more traditional kinds of offerings
• administration telling faculty to develop more on-line classes
• allocate resources for supporting instructors and other activities
• do we need more buildings?
• a lot going on and it takes a lot of resources to support
• because of resource allocation issues -a factor about where to put our money
• students still need the face to face meetings with faculty
• takes more of the faculty time because they have more students enrolled in online courses are an additional workload

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• it seems like there are a lot of decisions that have to be made as far as allocating resources for supporting instruction and the other activities.
• it makes a difference what form of instruction we are providing, do we need a lot more buildings just to deliver this service.
• is distance learning going to be enough of an area where we are going to be putting our attention in and we should be diverting more resources in that direction maybe cutting back on something else
• how much of a need is there for distance learning

Why issue is vital:

• impression is that it’s been growing a lot not just in our university but more across the country and it of course in itself takes a lot of resources to support.
• ecause of the resource allocation issues it seems like that’s going to be a factor, that’s going to come up every time we are talking about where to put our money.
• graduate students prefer distance learning because they work during the day and because of the parking issue
• administrators want more on line courses
• creates more work for faculty, because the classes are larger and the need is still there for face to face meetings
  

BUDGET PRIORITIZATION

• Issues with new Governor, new president and the budget issue

PARKING

• loss of street parking in the surrounding neighborhoods
• matter of convenience
• collaboration with city parking
• students driving around in early hours of morning trying to find parking, sleeping in their cars, missing classes
• students and faculty satisfaction with the University in diminished
• job satisfaction

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• loss of street parking – matter of convenience
• students have to drive around campus from ½ hour to 45 minutes to find parking
• Park N Ride, they’ll go there, they try to grab the bus, miss the bus and be late for class

Why issue is vital:

• students are arriving too early just to find parking and sleeping in their cars when they can be doing other things, like studying
• if they get here real early, they can’t study in library because library doesn’t open until 8:00 a.m.
• students are late to class or miss class if they are not able to find a parking space
• we are seeing more road rage, students arguing/fighting for spots
• students are sleep deprived
  

CLASS REGISTRATION

• students that feel they need a certain class to help them learn more about a specific subject, but classes get cancelled due to insufficient students enrolling
• classes that are being cancelled because there are not enough students enrolling
• students not interested because they can not get into a course
• students get away from pursuing a certain major because classes are hard to get into

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• students that feel they need a certain class to help them learn more about a specific subject and are not able to register for the class due to not enough students enrolling
• student not able to register for a particular class because there is no one to teach the class
• open more courses that students really need to fulfill prerequisites

Why issue is vital:

• students not interested because they can not get into courses
• students get away from pursuing a certain major because classes are hard to get into
• it affects students when you are dealing with meeting prerequisites
• it affects students down the line if classes get cancelled

TRANSITION WITH NEW PRESIDENT/NEW STRATEGIC PLAN - this is more a short term than a long term issue

• with new Governor, new President, budget issues – critical time for us as a campus to figure out where we are going
• facing things that we would not normally be facing with new Governor, new President
• transition from old President, the old better budget situation to the new Governor, hopefully new, better budget

CAMPUS LIFE

• strict regulations on when and where students can hold events
• attract students to want to live on campus
• support them living on campus (i.e., make it a more welcoming environment)
• build a structure for them to support them living on campus

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• what can students do on campus?
• restrictions for events on campus
• students not allowed to use amplified sound when holding events
• how do we satisfy the need for campus life in terms of amplification for events
• find a way to meet the needs of both education and student life on campus

Why issue is vital:

• with new residence halls being built on campus we need to draw in more students to campus
• balance the needs of the classroom and out of class needs of students

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

• support from local community
• more sponsors (i.e., financial sponsors) for Athletics
• support financially (programs, like Athletics)
• scholarship availability
• internships
• develop more options for students

DEFINING THE ISSUE

• we’ve been doing it, feeling that it can be done better
• believe we can do it better
• we are doing it, so probably wouldn’t qualify it as a critical strategic issue.
• we are doing it and we are moving it in the right direction

Table 5

1. WST is a problem. Student is close to dropping out. Has failed test 4 times. Did pass Linguistics 99 with an A. Obtained good score in essay portion of WST, fails multiple choice. A lot of people are falling behind or planning to transfer to a CSU where policy is different. In other campuses a student fails the Junior level writing test, passes a designated class with a C and does not have to take the WST again.

This is vital because:
Will affect enrollment in SJSU
Bad feelings about SJSU if only a few are aware of alternatives.

2. Need to have information for students online. And online information should require one click, not multiple loggins. It is often difficult to enter "myeducation." It is puzzling students do not have an email account. This needs to be done in a systematic way.

This is vital because:
Decreases student frustration. For example: "I could not graduate because I didn't apply for graduation." Student [now staff] didn't know there was a procedure to apply for graduation.

3. SJSU must address student problems. SJSU must be more transparent.This problem requires prompt, immediate attention, this cannot wait five years. Student problems are never simply solved. Difficult to get answers. Students and faculty making phone calls on behalf of students get the "run around." There is inefficiency. Different offices handle similar problems. There are numerous glitches. There is duplication of service among groups.And groups fight each other.

This is vital because:
It affects student enrollment. It affects SJSU's reputation and student morale; could delay student graduation.

4. We need to be democratic. There is a disparity between the racial and ethnic composition of the student population and those working at SJSU: administrators, staff and faculty. Important to look at demographics in the k-12 school system. Administrators, staff and faculty do not represent the diversity found in k-12. One example, during current presidential search various groups have requested representation.
Attribution is important: To link input to the actual results. For example, you raised this issue and this is what we are doing about it.

This is vital because:
Groups feel disenfranchised, assume a "what's the use" attitude. There is skepticism about actual change. We will talk and nothing gets done.
This affects student enrollment, retention and graduation.

5. Division I - Football. Student wanted others to know that he heard about SJSU because of football. Concerned about what he is reading in Spartan Daily about football.

This is vital because:
Doing away with Div 1 status would affect student recruitment.
Football says something about the reputation of a school.

6. Diversity. First generation college students need role models. Seeing diverse professionals give students an idea of "what you could do." "We look for people who look like us for support and encouragement."In the absence of diversity, it is difficult to become involved.
One student who graduated in a "mostly white" high school came to SJSU and "felt more at home." He also finds that transition to college has been "smooth" so far.

This is vital because:
"Less of our people are coming here."

7. New instructional strategies are needed. We need to be more responsive to student needs. We need more programs like gear-up. We need to provide whatever is needed to make success available to everyone. We need more retention resources and we need to study retention obstacles. We need to use best practices in teaching. Teaching style should match the learners. SJSU should become internationally known for "best higher education practices."

This is vital because:
We need to support the success of every student.

8. Visibility in the community. We must have a larger political presence. More SJSU people should serve on commissions.

This is vital because:
We need more recognition and we need to be more influential.

Table 6

· Technology – on an administrative standpoint, we need a centralized network to be more efficient. In summary, we need a centralized network and to standardize our system, a better setup for email in order to communicate with the students and more technology set up in the classrooms.

· Communication – need more communication from staff to students; students are misdirected; need to know who handles what in each department (collaboration in communication); more understanding is needed from the staff regarding the student’s situation, especially international students with their difference in culture; admission communication should be clear to the students. In summary, we need more accuracy, availability and accessibility, responsibility, clarity, and sharing of our knowledge to the campus community and the outside.

· Parking – big problem for students and staff; we need better safety and security surveillance in the parking areas. This is a major issue.

· More Resources – on the academic side, we need more support services for the students; faculty workload is a big problem and the size of the classes is getting bigger; classes are being cut and students find that they have to wait another year to graduate because of the shortage of classes and the students are getting very stressed; need extra funding, extra resources for the students; need to work more with the community with the pre-college students, getting them prepared for SJSU.

· Workload – we need to know our boundaries.

Table 7

Issue 1. Campus-wide communication needs significant improvement.

Issue & why vital: Campus-wide communication refers to how we deliver information to our constituents including students, employees and the community. This includes websites, email, information booths, electronic kiosks and signage. SJSU must improve its technology in order to save time and resources. The flow of quality/reliable information is critical to absolutely all internal and external constituents.

Discussion

· Implement student email requirement so ensure students receive accurate information. Will also reduce cost and improve efficiency. An example from a student related to alcohol.edu as students did not have enough information. The group felt student email should be a requirement.

· Ensure website remains appropriate, accurate and updated.

· Need holistic understanding of budget

· Need electronic kiosk to direct people

· SJSU has no information booth so campus is difficult to navigate for guests

· Many buildings lack signage. Campus signage needs improvement. In addition, signage is only in English.

Issue 2. SJSU lacks a clear identity.

Issue & why vital: Campus needs to define what a SJSU degree conveys as other campuses (Santa Clara, Harvard, etc.) are associated with a clear identity. Will help in recruiting faculty, staff, administrators, and students; help with interactions in Sacramento, Chancellor's Office, City, ...; help with fund raising; help our graduates seeking employment; etc.

Discussion

· Need a clear message

· Our significant contributions apparently not well known in our immediate area.

· PR/Marketing can then build upon a clear identity

· Need to maintain high quality programs and be known for them

Issue 3. Enrollment management must be a coordinated strategy which is widely-communicated across campus.

Issue & why vital: Enrollment management, referring to recruitmetn, admissions and retention, has significant implications related to budget, workload and access.

Discussion

· Define strategy related to enrollment management. If a strategy is currently being developed, share the process and keep campus informed of developments. Communication regarding process, goals, and targets is needed.

· Must focus on both recruitment and retention

· Concern with managing student/parent expectations as students/parents who pay more expect more services for their cost.

· Concern with maintaining a low Student Faculty Ratio where the focus remains on teaching.

· If enrollment is limited, the concern becomes access and who will be turned away.

Issue 4. Fundraising becomes more critical with continued budget concerns.

Issue & why vital: The campus needs to find other avenues to augment tuition and general fund dollars in light of additional projected budget cuts. Fund raising is a clear strategy to offset budget cuts but remains an untapped resource. Fund raising encompasses annual fund, fund development and legislation. Without external dollars we will be continually constrained by low student fees and inadequate state support.

Discussion

· Fundraising currently too decentralized on campus.

· We need better communication regarding fund raising efforts on campus.

· The campus does not have an annual fund. Some alumni have never been asked to give while others are repeatedly asked for donations.

· PR/Marketing needs to improve

Issue 5. The campus lacks institutional planning.

Issue & why vital: The campus lacks a clear direction related to campus priorities and what short-term and long-term goals are for SJSU. Without clear direction efforts are fragmented and funding not related to campus-wide known priorities.

Discussion

· The question was raised as to whether or not the campus was ready for more centralized planning.

· Institutional planning should drive budget priorities as when a campus knows its priorities, funding decisions become easier.

· The process is just as important as the outcome. Others must be involved to build teamwork and improve morale.

· This issue was perceived as the most vital because it affects all other strategic issues.

Issue 6. Parking remains a frustration for students, employees and guests.

Issue & why vital: The amount of available parking as well as the promotion of other options for getting to work remains inadequate for a campus of our size. What's vital however is getting past the image of SJSU having parking problems and capitalize on our metropolitan image and the availability of metro transport that is inexpensive and easy to use.

Discussion

· SJSU not perceived as encouraging other options for traveling to campus
· Consider use of satellite space

· Although many tend to laugh when this topic comes up, it remains a vital issue because it affects our students, employees and guests. Rather than assume parking will always be a problem, the campus needs to define creative ways of addressing this concern.

Issue 7. The level of workload is perceived to be too high, primarily for staff.

Issue & why vital: Student needs have increased and become more complex while staffing levels have remained the same (more counseling needs, more students with disabilities, more judicial affairs cases, more cases referred to Ombuds). Vital because it affects quality of all interactions and directly affects morale and productivity.

Discussion

· Perceived as more of a subcategory than strategic issue

· Consider what is within our control and what is not

· Staff currently perceived to have lower morale than faculty per the group.

Table 8

Coordination & Communication

• Starts where student applies to the college, then they are admitted, fix communication between students and admissions.
• Academic scheduling - different information and wrong information about getting signatures.
• Students are getting mixed messages.
• Guidance no help
• The departments and admissions need to take ownership to resolve problems
• First-time freshman get a lot of runaround
• Coordination of first-time freshman information needs to be fixed
• They have tried a 1 stop shop for freshman, but it needs to be more organized
• There is no training in the department level for admissions and how things work with paperwork and scheduling for students
• Look at the schedules in the past in different departments so they have an idea of how it works that way they can tell students what to take and what not to take
• Students don’t get treated well in the admissions processes

Vital – coordination & communication needs to be throughout the whole campus. People in departments and areas don’t talk to each other.

Budget & Funding

• Problem for the next few years
• Not having a transparent budget
• No one has access to the budget to look at salaries etc
• Cuts 5%-10% reductions, they don’t have to justify baseline
• Is there a way to review the bottom-line
• Look at costs & budget a different way
• If you start cutting academic programs, you cannot run a academic institution
• Where are the monies?
• In the business of delivering an education, but certain educational departments and programs are being cut
• No incentive to save money
• Be consistent
• Students done see where their money is going when fees increase
• Library funding is flat
• Library hasn’t had a increase in their budget in the last decade
• No new funding for library budget/staffing
• No trust
• Caps on some classes
• How do we maintain quality with the budget cuts
• Focus on budget problem and try to work with it
• Retain quality

Maintaining quality with a declining budget

• small classes
• library databases – books
• What isn’t here that should be?

- better computer labs
- Online library
- help with enrollment services – funding
- more resources with enrollment

---

Table 10

1) State Funding/Partnership Funding

- Securing adequate funding source in order to have a plan.
- Concern with new administration in Sacramento.
- Balancing budget for higher education.
- Will new governor allow for continued funding towards higher education as previous governor?
- New SJSU president needs to understand what University Advancement isn’t doing to solicit money for the different colleges on campus. How can they become more involved with individuals trying find resources?
- Define uniqueness in colleges/departments to determine what types of funding they need.
- Student Health Center depends on payments made by students in order to function.

2) Publication

- Community doesn’t understand what the university gives back to society.
- What activities are available to students on and off campus?
- What is SJSU’s image? Define uniqueness.
- How do we inform or get students to stay on campus in between or after classes to join clubs and other activities?

3) Diversity

- Although SJSU has diversity, it seems to be segregated on campus.
- Students don’t seem to interact. Racism?
- Students at the table don’t or haven’t experienced any type of conflict of culture backgrounds.
- Student (David) Experience between high school and university is better due to having a good diversity on campus.
- Student (Leland) doesn’t feel the teacher should be looked at as to who they are but rather how they teach.
- Funding for MOSAIC cross Culture has never been fully funded but is continuing to do their best for students involved with multiculture activities.

4) Next Five Years

- What is the role of education in the next five years?
- Campus based vs. urban institutional teaching structure.
- With the economy being what it is now, more people opt to take on-line courses.
- If on-line courses, how would SJSU keep track of count?
- If on-line courses become more available to students than what is already offered, what does that do for our diversity here on campus? How would we learn/utilize our rich resources of backgrounds of diversity from one another?

5) Metropolitan University

- What does this mean in terms of education?
- Technology in the next 10 years (partnership between SJSU and Silicon Valley).
- Homeless people surround the campus – location.
- Why is someone in college? Higher Ed, better job opportunities.
- Define SJSU. What does SJSU offer? What do we want to be known for?

6) Commuter Campus

- Quality of life.
- Housing cost is too high to live on campus and off campus.
- Students have to work in order to be able to afford to live here, causing them not be able to join in activities.
- Faculty is hard to hire due to the cost of living in San Jose.

7) Campus Climate

- Leland (Student) was hoping to have more to do both on and off campus. Has noticed that most of his friends/peers have to work to be able to afford to live here.
- Not much to do on campus in ways of clubs or activities.
- University has little impact on student lives.
- Average time a student stays on campus in between classes is 2 minutes.

8) Developing Alumni

- Develop a campus community
- Over 60% of SJSU’s students are transfer students
- Mission of CSU for SJSU is upper division transfers
- One to two years of students being on campus but not developing with campus culture
- Not developing alumni dedication, commitment and giving back to the university. Once they graduate, there’s no connection…no support for funding.
- Doing too many things, such as the housing, on-line programs, giving mix messages with limited resources.
- Lack of clear vision.

9) Better Education

- Scott Myers-Lipton (faculty) – Other than just faculty teaching, allow for speakers to come from off campus (other campuses, companies, etc.) to give a session on a specific topic.
- Students need to have better writing skills.
- How can the university fund seminars or programs that will allow for speakers to come to SJSU?
- Faculty having to teach to many classes within one semester causes burn out.
- Faculty can earn more money at other institutions.

10) Professional Development

- Allow staff additional training and/or cross training so employees can continue to learn and take advantage of other areas within their division/department.
- HR provides Professional Development.

11) Advising

- Better advising from individual departments.
- Because of overload of classes/teaching, hours are not accessible to students.
- Have more dedicated advisors (specific areas) and have them more available, it can help students learn better.

Table 11

Critical Strategic Issues

1. Strategic Planning for the campus; we currently have a Lack of Priorities

a. Define measurable outcomes and provide resources for assessment
b. Universal assessment with outcomes in mind
c. Data (that can be measured)
d. Maintaining consistent and measurable high standards
e. Resource Development - partnerships, alumni, state funds, soft monies
f. Communication - adequate sense of fitting in, help from departments

2. Retention - poor retention rates in all these categories creates many problems

a. Students
b. Faculty (part-time and full-time)
c. Staff

3. Efficiency and Communication

a. Purpose of tower card

i. Why can't it be automatically accessed (scanned) at service points?

b. Universal email for students has many advantages BUT

i. Concerns expressed about anonymity with other class members; one-way communication or anonymous two-way email preferred by students

c. Mandatory (students are concerned about privacy)

4. Raising the Bar

a. Capstone/culminating experience/activity for all students
b. (Related to 1 (d) above)

5. Parking (of course!) and Public Transit

a. Possible loss of proposed BART stop close to campus (due to budget)

Table 12

1. Agreeing upon and implementing a unified information technology structure, such that:

• university ‘units’ can communicate with each other more efficiently, in the same “language” and without the interface difficulties and incompatibilities that plague our present piecemeal situation
• new technologies can be evenly and easily assimilated everywhere
• the university can take advantage of economies of scale
• the university can provide students with access to better tech support on campus, eg computer labs that are more fully equipped and supported, smart classrooms, wireless internet, etc..

2. The need for teamwork and cooperation through (financial) crises, such that:

• people/units are willing to share resources, align tasks, etc to get the most efficient bang for the buck
• people avoid the hoarding and other “ugly” competitive behavior that is emerging, as people look out for their own, rather than seeing the big picture
• people work together to figure our questions of “ownership of problems” – eg, whose responsibility is it to make sure there is a working light bulb in the LCD projector, and how do you strike an intelligent balance between “preventive maintenance” and the inevitable alternative “crisis management”.

3. Providing for on-going professional development opportunities, especially for staff, such that

• people don’t have to pay for training out of their own hides/pockets ($$ inequity)
• people are not put in the position of having to be competent in the use of technology when they have not been afforded the opportunity to master it (morale issue)
• the university doesn’t behave in a ‘penny wise but pound foolish’ manner, in investing in its employees

4. Figuring out how to use on-line resources better, to free people up to do things that computers/ technology/web-page etc.. can’t do

• may entail sweeping redesign of web-page (some still found its organization opaque, and the task of actually finding information rather difficult)

5. As much as possible, scheduling of curricular offerings in a manner that responds to the needs of our students, such as

• more on-line classes
• better scheduling of section times etc..

Table 13

1. We, the entire University, need to have clearly defined priorities in place before we are able to successfully move forward. We need a strategic plan/vision. By defining priorities to support our values, we define our value to ourselves, to the University and to the community. This plan must be fluid!

2. There needs to be more communication at the top levels of management. They need to have the same vision in mind. Also, there is a need for mandatory emails!

3. Enrollment Strategy: Help students from the beginning of the process thru to Graduation and beyond as Alumni. In addition, maybe we need to look at the quality of student body the University is trying to attract and retain. We need students able to engage the Faculty. Also, how can we assure “campus buy in”? This ties in with our retention and to the quality of students we are trying to recruit.

4. Marketing the University to prospective students, counselors, parents, etc…. We are starting to do more effectively thru the addition of the Martin Luther King Library and the new Campus Village currently being built.

5. The University needs to be more technologically sound. We are located in the heart of Silicon Valley and can not compete with surrounding schools due to our lack of technological resources.

Side notes:

Finances- We need to tap into our alumni for money! We also need to establish an annual fund.

Institute a “transitional year program”. Designed to help first year college students be successful now an in the future.

Table 14

1. Matching resources to demand-

• meeting enrollments, yet temp. faculty is going to be reduced!
• maintaining quality is job #1!
• what’s vital vs. discretionary
• vacant rate also affects the temp hire process
• filling a faculty position with a temp also affects next year
• professional development

2. Enrollment selection process should ensure that the students are ready for college; re-assessing the selection process also affects FTES if you are over the G.F. you lose the funding. It also affects the J.C’s and 2nd year transfer students

3. How to maintain quality of service with state of the art production/technology with the shortfalls in budgeting, what is going to happen with the quality of budgets set aside for upgrades–people come in with expectations probably because we are in “Silicon Valley”, at least to have a match for what the private industry has or provides the mission statement for SJSU-how to actualize distance learning is also important-what are the trade-offs: reduce faculty, increase student retention, supplies, software, etc. what goes and what stay quality vs. quantity is/should be the mission

4. Do we have too many choices to select from for resource allocations especially with the economy, retention of faculty, staff, etc. Also, how to bring in new staff/faculty in this expensive area.

5. Decentralize vs. centralized resources for IT. For example, a virus should only be a nuance, not a problem, instead at SJSU it does not appear to be very cost effective (the past system) centralized would not service the faculty needs there is equipment not being fully utilized what about auditing the equipment for best practice, best utilization effective use of resources-establish a central pool! Generate revenue by selling the equipment there is no shared culture on this campus, plus we are not operating as individuals reaching for the common goal! Establish an Audit Task Force

6. FD+O charges serious rates just to hang a nail, do painting, change backs, etc. you cannot run wires, hang pictures for the fear of reprisals or being called before the union. FACILITIES: number of hours being charged to perform menial or usual tasks. How can we factor this data or fees into budget requirements! How can we share the resources or receive the portion that we need! Nickel and dime departments

7. How to change the culture” we have always done it this way” plus the union rules!

8. Creation of the “Campus Community” the building of the new residences for students and faculty share resources communication.

9. Workload expectations for Tenure Flock-temp faculty does not advise, sit on committee, etc. Tenure will have to teach more courses which cuts into research, assigned time, etc.

10. How can we communicate more effectively, financially disperse human resources and equipment across the campus to achieve maximum collaboration?

Table 15

Most Critical Issues Facing SJSU and Why Vital?

Elementary Teacher Preparation – Coordination with community colleges is needed to ensure transfer students are effectively prepared to transition into our system. SJSU needs to be accountable for graduating teachers that are well equipped to be successful.

GE Curriculum is Fragmented – The GE curriculum doesn’t make sense to students and it doesn’t prepare them for life to serve the community. The GE curriculum is fragmented along disciplines and doesn’t offer adequate interdisciplinary opportunities. We are not preparing students for the world they will encounter after graduation. Since the curriculum doesn’t make sense to them they are under motivated and often fail. The fragmented nature of the curriculum also leaves faculty feeling isolated. SJSU should design the curriculum to best serve the community as a “responsive” curriculum.

Plan and Process for Transition from Enrollment Management to Advising – There needs to be improvement in developing a plan and process for handing off students from enrollment management to advising to help ensure they are successful and graduate. Students fall through the cracks. Students are not always advised appropriately and they are sometimes misdirected as they attempt to seek guidance for the appropriate courses to take in order to graduate on time. There is no systematic way to know whether students were advised and there is no process (e.g., email) to stay in touch with students. SJSU lacks a planned approach for how we will work with students from recruitment through enrollment in order to help them be successful and graduate on time.

Outreach – There is no active outreach (re-recruitment) or communication with alumni to encourage their participation in University events and to give back (time, attention, money) to the University. There are a lot of alumni in the Bay area and SJSU doesn’t have an effective outreach effort to reach alumni. Outreach is vital because it can help SJSU grow and keeps a commitment to the University alive with the alumni. Outreach is important to establish a community connection and reduce the isolation of a commuter campus. Alumni include graduates as well as those who attended SJSU even if they didn’t earn a degree. A better connection with the alumni will create a sense of empowerment and motivation for students (e.g., regularly planned vehicles to maintain connection with alumni). Faculty doesn’t think of SJSU as a “service” provider. We need our collective conscience to change so that we understand we serve students and then they (alumni) serve us. We are not taking advantage of our resources. Alumni could come in to teach/serve especially with the budget crisis and help with employment/internship opportunities for students. Outreach needs to be active and continuous and SJSU needs to adopt a service culture with an emphasis on life-long learning.

Language and Remedial Needs – SJSU is not effectively addressing the language and remedial needs of our students. This is an important issue because it dilutes the experience of other students if faculty has to slow down instruction. Students sometimes choose majors because of language problems and thus they will choose a major where English is not needed as much. Remedial needs exist for students where English is a second language as well as where English is the primary language. Remedial classes do not appear to be effective in addressing student needs. SJSU needs to reflect upon whom we are admitting and serving. SJSU needs to decide on the type of students we are targeting and serve them appropriately. The reality of who we serve does not appear to be well accepted. Our perception of ourselves doesn’t match who our students really are and the resources required to address their needs.

Ensuring Recruitment of Qualified Faculty – SJSU needs to change the workload and economic environment to improve recruitment of qualified faculty. SJSU needs to address the question of whether it can sustain itself by relying on temporary faculty. The ratio of tenure track to temporary faculty is problematic. Due to high housing costs, some departments have not been able to recruit new faculty for years. Workload is a problem for current faculty. A four-course load plus other activities (e.g., assisting remedial students, research expectations, advising, etc.) makes it difficult to offer a quality education and diminishes faculty’s participation in non-instruction related campus activities.

Foreign Language Requirement Needed – Given the global nature of the world and economy, a foreign language is an important part of preparing students to succeed. SJSU students are not prepared to meet the global challenges. Requiring a foreign language would help students appreciate a diversity of cultures and help them be a better student at SJSU as well as a better-educated citizen.

Comprehensive Advising Framework to Help Students Graduate – Students need a comprehensive advising plan that coordinates the efforts of all advisors to help students navigate through SJSU, have a meaningful experience and graduate. The work schedule of students affects what classes they can take. Due to a variety of issues (i.e., workload, commute times due to high cost of living in San José) there is a lack of quality faculty advising. There is no penalty for faculty not advising students. Advising is not a priority for faculty. Advising students is not a priority at SJSU.

Transparency of Decision-making – It is not clear how decisions are made that affect budget, plans, policies. etc.

Summary of Survey Invormation & Responses to Open Ended Items from Participants

Summary:

Ratings of the item: Involving all constituents in disscusions important:

Ratings of the item: Good balance between presenting inforamtion and gathering input from participanats:

Ratings of the item: Small Group discussion was productive:

Ratings of the item: This series of strategic conversations will help us to shape our future:

Responses to Open Ended Items from 11/18 Conversation

Additional Points that did not surface at table discussion:

• Establish an accruate meta-directory for all faculty, staff, students
• Workload, Student preparateion, Community connection
• Alum relations
• Lower SFR - relates to workload and student retention
• Employee morale
• Helping students with financial aid and other programs
• Meal plans are not good. Need to be able to get DC express and meals on weekends
• Importance of developing lifelong learning skills in students; information competence/research; writing; communication skills
• Need better state-of-the-art technology
• Diversity of faculty and managers/administratros
• Define what it means for out students to leave here as 'educated persons'
• Dealing with budget realities without losing commitment to giving students well rounded GE that maintains academic standards
• Financial Aid for graduate students
• Need to define workload
• Campus life, developing a sense of pride among our students.
• Reliance on email and implications for phuysical plant staff without email access

Advice to help draw even more SJSU constituents into these conversations

• Have the President and Provost take some public stands encouraging participation
• Having key players urgently request the participation of their colleagues, with the tacit 'permission' to spend the time doing it
• Make sure invitations get to all SJSU employees via a targeted mailing using inter-office mail
• Tell them where they can get a copy of the final strategic plan. Also, tell them how you will measure effectiveness of each strategic issue
• Try to get more students involved. Sadly, majority of students who attended were required to by their professors (including myself)
• Isolate email to staff/faculty. Don't have multiple issues in the email.
• Send personal invitation
• Email survey of faculty, students, alums
• We need more time for discussion
• More awareness of meetings through visuals and advertising
• Offer incentives
• Give better definition of 'conversation' - make it seem more advertising - on a basic level. Not just connect at higher level administration
• Have at better time of day
• Keep circulating flyers, make announcements in classrooms
• Get to more than just MUSE students, get more upperclass students
• Get info out early enough so faculty and staff can RSVP
• Publish questions to be considered before the meeting so we can start thinking of issues we want to discuss
• Post more flyers
• Advertise more
• Contact more student organizations
• The more the campus feels that these 'conversations' will have true impact in overall strategic plan for the university the more 'investment' campus will have in the process
• Publicize the results campus-wide
• Communicate with chairs
• Continue to have on different days to fit different schedules